1/72 Curtiss P-52 Super Tomahawk

[Brian da Basher]

In early 1944, disaster struck the U.S. Army Air Force when, unexplicably, their new P-51 fighters began falling out of the sky and crashing in great numbers.

It was later discovered that the entire North American P-51 program had been sabotaged by one very deeply placed Nazi agent, a Mr. Bimmler, who was eventually captured and executed along with his handler, a slimy little man known as Mr. Hilter.

In a blind panic, The U.S. Army Air Force solicited designs for a long-range, high alltitude fighter. Fortunately, the Curtiss Aero Co. arose to meet the challenge and tweaked their XP-46 proposal by adding an amazing new engine of hitherto unachievable power: the high-compression, turbo-supercharged Allison V-2000 30 cylinder inline. The enormous powerplant necessated moving the cockpit far aft, but this was seen as a small compromise given the incredible performance the nimble fighter showed in trials. The new prototype fighter was able to attain a top speed of 492 m.ph. in level flight and had a top ceiling of 50,000 ft. When fitted with drop-tanks, it had a range of 2,500 miles. The fighter was christened the P-52 Super Tomahawk and was very heavily armed with four 20 m.m. cannons in the wings. It was immediately ordered into mass-production and began equipping U.S.A.A.F. units in February, 1945.

The P-52 Super Tomahawk (or "Super Tom" as it was called by its pilots and crews) helped the Allies gain the upper hand against the Luftwaffe in Europe and gained notoriety as "little friends" escorting B-17 and B-24 bomber streams over Germany where it inflicted staggering losses on Reich defense squadrons. No less than Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goering cited the P-52 as key to the Allied victory in comments he made after signing the Nazi surrender at Wiesbaden in July, 1946. "I knew the war was lost when I saw Super Toms over Berlin", he was quoted as saying. The example shown here, "Four Queens" of the 412th Fighter Squadron, 8th Air Force, was eventually credited with 35 enemy aircraft destroyed  and is currently on display at the Udvar-Hazy museum next to the "History of Aircraft Spark Plugs" exhibit.

1st of 5 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Here's my entry for the Piston Perfection GB. As Thorvic once observed, I view the P-51 as a "modern" aircraft, so I really had to think hard to come up with an idea for this GB. The base kit for this build was the wonderful 1/72 Academy P-40B that I purchased off Jschmus so he could get new tires for his truck. I've always really liked the sleek look of the Curtiss XP-37 and I thought I might be able to "improve" it a bit.

2nd of 5 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Right off the bat, I saw that the canopy I had left from an He-100 would fit perfectly once I cut away most of the upper fuselage for the enormous new engine. I marked where the canopy needed to go and cut away the rear fuselage and filled un the gap with sheet plastic and a lot of putty. I also modified the original P-40 cockpit so it would fit in the narrower space at the rear. Unfortunately, you can't see much of it, but at least I know it's there. Next, I "pushed in" the chin scoop to make a sleeker nose and cut some holes in the belly for new, more stremalined intake. It was at this point that I noticed a spare 5 bladed prop (probably from a Spitfire) would fit very nicely and add to that high-performance look I was after. All I had to do now was scratch 18 additional exhaust stubs from sprue and "modernize" the landing gear by making wheel doors from sheet plastic.

3rd of 5 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

I'm lucky that late-war U.S. fighters wore a simple NMF and O.D. anti-glare panel scheme. The O.D. anti-glare panel certainly helps hide my mods to the upper fuselage. The entire model was bush painted by hand using acrylics. The NMF is courtesy of Model Masters Steel and the anti-glare panel is done with Testor's Olive Drab. I used Tamiya Gunmetal on the guns and a custom mix of "Blue Steel" for the exhausts. The prop-blades were painted using Liquitex artists' colors. I was a little stumped for a marking scheme when I found some checkered tail makrings from a 1/144 B-17 in the decal stash. I trimmed them to fit and then hand-painted some matching checkers on the wingtips. The rest of the markings are left-overs, and the "Four Queens" nose art is from a sheet for an F-84. Here's a shot that shows off the modified nose and turbo supercharger belly scoop.

4th of 5 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

I had a lot of fun with this project. It took me four days to build, which is fast even for me. I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

Last of 6 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Daryl J.]

Brian,

The lines of that machine are really good!


Daryl J.

[jon_rose]

That's one huge engine. What's it rated at?

[Brian da Basher]

That's one huge engine. What's it rated at?

I forgot to mention that the Allison V-2000 30 cylinder engine is rated at 4,500 horsepower. Yikes!

I'm glad you guys like this little beastie.

Brian da Basher

[cthulhu77]

Very cool, I was just lookiing at the XP's in a book this morning...this one is most convincing!

[Maverick]

Sweet build Brian.

I've always loved the look of the YP-37, had that 'racer' sought of feel to it.

A tiny point, the 'stars n bars' wouldn't have the red centre bar during WW2.

Super build either way.

Regards,

Mav

[Brian da Basher]

Sweet build Brian.

I've always loved the look of the YP-37, had that 'racer' sought of feel to it.

A tiny point, the 'stars n bars' wouldn't have the red centre bar during WW2.

Super build either way.

Regards,

Mav

Thanks, Mav! I'm glad you like it. I chose those markings just for the added color. Until I found some kill markings in the stash, I wasn't entirely sure this wouldn't be a post-war machine. In my little alt. history universe, the red stripes were added in the ETO.

Brian da Basher

[Allan]

Stupendous build there Brian

I've always liked planes with the cockpit wwwwaaaayyyyy in the back.

Allan in Canberra

[Chap]

Awsome work Brian! I really love the looks of this one.

~Steve

[AeroplaneDriver]

Superb!

A V-30 engine!!!    

[Jschmus]

Awesome!